I need to reset my Dell Latitude D820 to when it was new and came out of the box. Dell told me to restart and press ctrl F11 when the Dell logo appeared, that did not work. Tried the same thing with just F11, that also did not work.

1 Answer

You have to press F11 and keep on pressing it but not hold it down. Some menu appears, wouldn't know because i got an HP but with Dells should have a menu for system restore. So just press and keep on tapping it till some bios menu appears that give you more options.

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To reload Windows..As the computer starts, press <F8> on the keyboard until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen. This must be done before Windows logo appears.Press the <Down Arrow> on the keyboard to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press <Enter>.Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.Click Dell Factory Image Restore.In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.Click to select the Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition check box.Click Next. The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.The reload Windows information is from the Dell website,http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...

ALL DELL COMPUTERS WHICH WERE SHIPPED AFTER 2004 HAS THIS FEATURE,ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS RESTART THE COMPURTER AND ON DELL LOGO PRESS AND HOLD DOWN CTRL KEY AND TAP F11 KEY MANY TIMES....U WILL GET THE OPTION FOR PC RESTORE..THEN RESTORE THE COMPUTER TO THE FACTORY SETTINGS.

note : Ur computer will became brand new as you bought it on day 1 ,all the information would be lost....but it will only take 10mins hardly...try this njoy.

Do you get a prompt to press CTRL F11 at startup?What prompts do you get? You should be prompted to enter setup or hit F12 (I think) for boot options. If you are not prompted to enter system recovery, then you might be out of luck.If the computer was refurbished, it is possible that the previous owner reformatted the drive and wiped out the recovery partition.

The question I would ask is why are you trying to do a system recovery?Can't you just uninstall the stuff you don't want?

Here are the Dell instructions for PC-Restore. The actual process is listed in step 3
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&cs=2684&l=en&s=pub&docid=DC47E7957E35BBC0E030A68F27280D16&journalid=752C8744BD74435FE040AE0AB6E1477A&Query=cGMrcmVzdG9yZQ==&SystemID=PRN_ALL_A926&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false
When you start the system, after the Dell Splash Screen, there should be a black screen with a blue bar across the top with www.dell.com in white letters. If that page does not show, then PC-Restore will not work. If you do see that screen, you have to be very fast with the CTRL+F11 key combination at that screen. It should open PC Restore by symantec. On a system this old, it if very likely the restore image is no longer intact and my not function. If you get into the tool and it errors out, or you have no PC-Restore, then you will need to install XP from the CD and load drivers.

Disconnect external peripherials except keyboard and mouse .Disconnect the power cable.Hold the power button for 10 seconds to drain flea power.Reconnect the power cable and turn on the computer When the blue DELL™ logo appears, press immediately. In bios there is option for Function key F9 or F10 probably to reset to defaults.SAve and exit and restart the system .Then try to use the PC restore feature on dell. check http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim1100/en/SM/syssetup.htm#wp1055545

If you have a dell computer, you can restore your computer back to factory settings using CTRL+F11. You need to restart the computer and when you see the Dell logo. Press CTRL+F11. You will see the message "PC RESTORE"

You may reinstall your operating system using the cd if your system doesn't have the capability to restore settings to factory. You may call you computer manufacturer about it.